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Dr. Seuss’ birthday is today! Want some fun ways to celebrate with your little ones? Find everything from themed snack time to reviewing your child’s successes with Oh the Places You’ll Go below. Here are five of our favorite ways to celebrate the holiday:

1. Read Your Favorite Dr. Seuss Book

Everyone has a favorite Dr. Seuss book from childhood! Pick your favorite and reminisce with your children. Not only is this a great way to increase early vocabulary, but the lyrical genius also teaches important life lessons along the way. From What Pet Should I Get? to the Dr. Seuss’s ABC Board Book, browse our Seuss book selection here: https://www.kaplantoys.com/store/trans/search.asp?tbSearch=dr+seuss&searchButton=

2. Take a Trip with Oh the Places You’ll Go

Love Oh the Places You’ll Go? So do we, as it encourages a sense of adventure and wanderlust in children! Talk about the different successes in your child’s life and the many goals that they aim to achieve. Make it into a craft project by breaking out a local or world map with pins for all of your child’s favorite haunts, family vacations, and places to visit! The map is a great reminder to keep dreaming!

3. What’s in the Cat’s Hat Game

Have little sensory learners in the household? What’s in the Cat’s Hat Game is a great way to celebrate Dr. Seuss Day while also bolstering your little one’s sensory skills. Hide something in the hat for children to discover! Kids can ask questions, use clues, and interact with the hat’s fun exploratory features to discover what it is! Find the game here: https://www.kaplantoys.com/product/62394/whats-in-the-cats-hat-game?c=11%7CKTGM02

4. Seussical Snack Time

Get creative with snack time! Incorporate hands-on learning in the kitchen with your favorite Dr. Seuss book. From Cat in the Hat cheese sticks, to green eggs and ham, there are a plethora of snacks you can try out with your little one on our Dr. Seuss Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/KaplanToys/ways-to-celebrate-dr-seuss/

5. Fox in Socks Inspired Craft Time

Pull out the paper plates and orange paint! Here is a fun kid craft for making a fox to go along with Seuss’ beloved Fox in Socks. Go as far as picking out fun socks for your child to wear as they wiggle their feet and enjoy the rhymes of Dr. Seuss! Cut out and paint a fox afterwards for a cute memento.

May is Get Caught Reading Month! To promote early literacy in the household, especially as students gear up for summer, challenge your children to read in different places around the home. Make a game of seeing how many different places you can “catch” your child reading and take a picture each time. At the end of the month, you can see a collection of spots your children love to read, inspire a love of reading along the way, and encourage children to understand how different spaces can complement their overall reading experience! Get inspired with some of our favorite places to find children reading:

1. A Space with a View

Whether it’s hanging out in a tree, sitting by a window, or lounging on the balcony, spaces that give children a view while they read can be all the more inspiring! There’s nothing like being reminded by the worlds within books that the world outside waits at children’s feet!

KT Book Suggestions:

2. Spaces Filled with Friends

Many times, children find books more engaging when reading to an audience, whether it’s to friends or to teddy bears. Being comfortably surrounded by a familiar audience turns reading into a community experience and is a great way for children to take on a teaching role as they read aloud.

KT Book Suggestions:

3. Outdoor Spaces

One exciting thing about reading outside is that children can find examples of what they’re reading about right in front of their eyes! Tree houses, jungle gyms, or picnic blankets are all great places children can sprawl to be inspired as they read!

KT Book Suggestions:

4. Sensory Spaces

Reading in areas that give children an opportunity to use their other senses is a great way to complement the reading experience! Whether it’s reading near flowerbeds about spring, reading beside you in the kitchen as you cook, or dipping their feet in water as they learn about frog life cycles, sensory interactions will bring children’s stories to life!

KT Book Suggestions:

5. Spaces Surrounded by Books

Many times, books are more like companions than simple pages. Young children can find comfort in being surrounded by walls lined with books, either in your home or at a library. It is also a great way for children to get excited about what they will read next!

KT Book Suggestions:

We hope you have fun looking forward to the many places you can find children reading. Wherever you may find them, knowing they are developing a love of reading is enough to make any parent smile!

Do you have creative ideas for spaces children can read? Share them with us on our Facebook page.

The start of a new year is a great time to come up with things you want to have accomplished by the end of it. Do you have dreams you’ve always held close but never pursued? Did you not chase after it because you thought it was too big? Well, this amazing story of one girl is enough to inspire just about anyone that nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it.

Did you know Amelia Mary Earhart saw her first plane when she was only 10 years old? She was not impressed. It was not until she went to a stunt-flying exhibit a decade later that a dream began to take up full residence in her mind. On December 28, 1920, pilot Frank Hawks gave young Amelia a ride that would forever change her life. “By the time I had got two or three hundred feet off the ground,” she said, “I knew I had to fly.”

Though she faced financial and prejudicial obstacles, Amelia Earhart would go on to buy her own plane, the Canary, by 1921 and eventually become the world’s first woman to fly the Atlantic. She also placed third at the Cleveland Women’s Air Derby, later nicknamed the “Powder Puff Derby” by Will Rogers, was presented a gold medal from the National Geographic Society by President Herbert Hoover, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by Congress–the first ever given to a woman. Vice President Charles Curtis praised Earhart’s courage, saying she displayed “heroic courage and skill as a navigator at the risk of her life.”

It is so important to foster children’s dreams and let them know that anything is possible. With a little support and encouragement they can do or become whatever they want. It’s also important for adults to know that it’s not to late to make new dreams! C.S. Lewis once said, “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” So true! Don’t let your doubts get the best of you this year. Support your little ones and yourself and go out there to see what you can achieve.

Want to learn more about Amelia Earhart? Gear up for Amelia Earhart Day on Saturday by reading these books to your kids about her great journey: